Jim Lewis, senior fellow and director of the Technology and Public Policy Program, CSIS

But at least one subject has been absent from all the talk about scaling back: cybersecurity. In a speech unveiling details of the DoD budget, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta singled cybersecurity as one of a few areas that will actually increase in the coming years.

"As we reduce the overall defense budget, we will protect, and in some cases increase, our investments in special operations forces, in new technologies like (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance), and unmanned systems, in space — and, in particular, in cyberspace — capabilities, and also our capacity to quickly mobilize if necessary," Panetta said. "These investments will help the military retain and continue to refine and institutionalize the expertise and capabilities that have been gained at such great cost over the last decade."

And the Pentagon's addition of cybersecurity as its own domain carries budget implications of its own with it.

Jim Lewis, a senior fellow and director of the Technology and Public Policy Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, joined In Depth with Francis Rose to discuss the rising profile of cybersecurity inside DoD.

This story is part of Federal News Radio's daily Cybersecurity Update. For more cybersecurity news, click here.